Story, ish

Kayla Clark is not the sort of girl you would employ at a sophisticated and snooty bar for the upper classes. So it is no surprise that on her first day on the job she has found herself in front of a very angry boss and a customer with a bleeding nose. The boss gestures for her to follow him and, with no other option, she does.  Kayla is not like her co-workers; for a start she has green hair and a nose ring. She dresses like she’s pulled rags out of a dumpster and sewn them back together. Her fellow employees are all dressed in designer labels with shiny soft hair and impeccable taste- much like the patrons of the bar. They’re all watching her and have been from the moment she turned up for work. Their distrust radiates from them. They don’t like her because she stands out. She is practically a different species in their eyes. She is uneducated, small and scrawny. She boasts no nose job or fake chest. She is young, too young to be working in a bar. She is alien and unreadable and that scares them. But Kayla doesn’t care, all her life standing out has been the one way to survive and defend herself. If they knew who her father was they wouldn’t look at her with disgust; they would be crawling over hot coals to be her friend, but that is exactly why she doesn’t promote the fact that her father is a star. She spent her childhood having false friends that only wanted her for her money and her father’s power and now she would rather have no friends than fake ones. She doesn’t even count herself to have a father anymore.  She makes her way through the bar following The Boss Man she looks at his back with interest. It is broad and covered in a sharp, grey suit. This is the first time she has met him and she can only wish it was under better circumstances, perhaps an award for employee of the month, but no. She is two hours into her first shift and she is in trouble. Deep trouble. Bottom-of-the-sea-deep trouble. The Boss walks briskly to the other side of the room and Kayla struggles to keep up with his pace. She feels like a prisoner making her way to her execution. They arrive in front of a metal door with a name plate reading “Jim Beam”. She can’t help but laugh, the man owns a bar and has the same name as a brand of whisky. Jim Beam turns sharply and glares at her. Kayla immediately shuts her mouth, biting her tongue to stop the bubbles of laughter threatening to emerge. He unlocks his office and struts inside, like a Peacock making its way into a room full of Peafowl. This is his domain and she should make sure she remembers it. Kayla shuffles into the office all the while wishing the ground would swallow her up. She can feel everyone’s eyes on her and this makes her mad. What she did was a perfectly reasonable reaction for the situation.
“Shut the door and sit down.” Her boss snaps, taking a seat behind a desk that seems to take up most of the room. As Kayla turns to shut the door, she shoots the finger at the onlookers tittering away at her. That shut them up. She sees a sea of horrified public school faces staring back at her as she slams the metal door. Taking the seat opposite her boss she tries for a petulant face, crossing her hands meekly on her lap. Jim Beam looks her up and down with a blank face. Only the fire in his eyes reminds Kayla that he is angry.
“Would you care to tell me what happened out there?” He asks, but it isn’t really a question. He stares at her with such fury that a lesser woman would have dissolved into a puddle of tears. Kayla doesn’t. She cocks her head to the side and blows air out of her mouth; with arrogance only a young person had in front of their elders. Suddenly she is raring for a fight.
“I punched that man in the face for commenting on my breasts.” She snarls. There is a long moment of silence whilst Jim reaches into his desk to find a white form and a pen. Kayla takes this time to look at him more closely. She would guess that he was in his thirties, and well kept. There was a wedding band on his desk- not on his finger. Maybe he was estranged from his wife… no. She noticed that he had three mobile phones on a table in the corner. A phone for family, a phone for business, a phone for pleasure. He had a wife and multiple girlfriends. The wife didn’t know, hence the separate phones. What a dirtbag she thought. She resumed her once over, Jim had blonde hair swept back from his forehead in an almost quiff and a strong jaw. He would have been attractive if it were not for the icy coldness in his eyes. Kayla hates herself for noticing how strong his forearms look as he writes down what she has said. He looks up at her.
“The customer back there is an Arabian prince. He is a valued customer. He claims the attack was unprovoked and I am inclined to believe him.” All this is said with surgical precision, no emotion. He is a walking talking robot. Kayla feels words on her tongue. She swallows them back to be destroyed by the fire in her belly. She needs this job.
“I wouldn’t lie.” She says matter of factly, once she has regained her composure. “That man made an unwanted comment and when I asked him to leave me alone he continued to pursue me. I was scared of what he might to and of what was expected from me and I panicked. I’m very sorry.” Kayla tried her best to look apologetic. Her boss continued to write on the form. Suddenly, Kayla was terrified of what was going to happen to her, she needed this job. She had a history of violence and what if… what if this was it. Tears sprung to her eyes as she imagined what might happen to her if the prince pressed charges. She was sure she would be incarcerated, he past criminal offences made it impossible for her not to be. Jim looked up as he heard her sob and ceased writing. Struggling not to tell the stupid girl to pull herself together he paused. He didn’t have time for nutjobs like her. He needed to get her out of his office. He needed Candy to relieve his stress, just another dumb barmaid but he had taken a liking to her. Oh yes, a special liking to. An idea sprung to mind, another business venture he was opening up. This freak in front of him would be perfect.
“Now now, there’s no need for that.” He said soothingly, trying to win her trust. “It’s all okay, everything is fine.” Kayla looked up hopefully:
“I’m not losing my job?” She asked brightly, relief visible on her face. Jim Beam tipped his head forward slightly.
“Alas, my dear. You can’t work here anymore. But, I am opening a club on the other side of town that I think would be better suited for. I will write to you with the details soon. Please leave your apron on the bar.”

            And with that, Kayla found herself thrown out of one world and into another.